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In a famous sixties study on responsibility, participants were given the imagined power to anonymously shock volunteers erring on questions. In spite of intense suffering feigned by those volunteers, only one percent of the juicers demonstrated restraint. Sixty-five percent used the 450 volt maximum though warned it could do great harm. The study affirmed anonymity as a dangerous impediment to accountability. We thus find the fatal flaw in the liberal fantasy of benevolent government – constructive impact comes out of relationships, not power.
Uncle Sam and his kissing cousins at the state and local level are failing at every social problem they attempt to address. Where government intervenes, over time, people get sicker, poorer, more dependent, and less productive – a benevolent government’s version of electrocution.
Most people, including the wealthy, are resistant to forced participation in failure.
The President’s “Buffett Rule” is the latest creative effort to fund Uncle Sam’s detached munificence with other people’s money. Obama’s mascots are cheering a chance to validate their fading bumper stickers, but the plan mirrors the double-talk, dysfunction, and divisiveness persistently characterizing his presidency.
Per the New York Times, about 60,000 “rich” people will fall under the Buffett Rule. Their new taxes will raise 13 billion over 10 years. That’s enough to cover about one day of federal spending.
Proposals to tax the rich, like printing artificial money, offer a pleasant diversion from the real business of managing government. Such plans are especially pleasing to those Americans, about half, who pay no federal income tax.
The top ten percent of wage earners carry seventy percent of that burden. Though it’s true many citizens pay less income tax to Uncle Sam than in the past, the overall tax bite is growing by leaps and bounds. About half our earnings go toward an ever expanding rainbow of incomprehensible taxes. See your phone bill for a quick lesson on such.
Government contribution to America’s economic woes is sincerely tracked to excessive spending and meddling. Solutions rest on restraint first and revenue later. Republicans are rightfully resisting Democrat attempts to reverse that equation.
Our current tax code supports crony capitalism, political patronage, cheating, and indifference from too many with no skin in the game. Reform is crucial and flat and fair tax proposals hold strong potentials.
It won’t happen soon. Our government has outgrown its people. The resulting detachment from reality predicts tax shocks with progressive enthusiasm.
Carl Mumpower is a practicing psychologist and a former U.S. congressional candidate and Asheville city council member. Contact him at drmumpower@thecandidconservative.com
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